Wolf's Den

The Forest for the Trees...

Jul. 22nd, 2012

Dear So and So-

When I say that this particular branch is not my main family, I mean it.

When I say that the information I have comes from research other family members directly related to that line and what I could find in a casual search, I mean it.

When I say that I'll do more research into that line when I get the time, I especially mean it.

Sending me links and the like, demanding to know where I got my info- on people that aren't even directly related to you, no less, that you even admit you haven't been able to connect in your tree, as well as things I've already seen and filed away for future research and even told you as much- is extremely annoying after the 6th email.

Take a hint- that family name is NOT my direct lineage. Nor is it even a secondary lineage. In fact, other than by marriage, that line isn't even related to me. Therefor, it's not a priority to do the research on at this time. That line gets added to when I hit roadblocks in my main family lines.

And if you're trying to use my research to figure out where this particular person fits in your tree, instead of trying to do that yourself- being lazy, in other words- well, that just pisses me off. I don't mind sharing information, but you really need to make some sort of effort on your own as well.

In the mean time, your emails will go unanswered for now, because I do not have the time to do the research into that family name right now.

Apr. 9th, 2012

The 1940 Census

mood: contemplative

Has been basically absorbing all my attention in the last week since it went live for searching. Well, it and Skyrim. But mostly the 1940 Census.

I need to finish up The Kitchen Project posts, need to edit photos and blog about the gardens, need to edit and plot out my Daring Cooks Challenge post- and it's going to be a long one, so I better get started soon- and work on things for my shops. (Actually have 2 kumihimo cuffs in varying stages of completion, one will be hand dyed by me from bamboo cotton, the other should be finished by tomorrow for listing on Weds.)

In the week since the Census went live for searching by enumeration district, I've found Mark's maternal grandmother, his paternal grandfather, his paternal grandmother, my grandmother, my grandfather, my great grandparents on Bonnie's side, Bonnie's mother, my dad's adoptive parents, his birth grandparents... yeah.

Last night at 946pm, I found my dad.

And the problem is, finding him and where he was has raised more questions. Some of which may never be answered.

He wasn't living with his birth parents- I've yet to find them. He was with his birth mother's parents. Which means sometime between May of 1939 and April of 1940, he and his birth mother left his birth father and he was left with his grandparents. Why? Where did she go after that? Where was his father?

The problem with finding those answers is that the people who would know the reasons why, are no longer living. So they may never be answered.

Mar. 22nd, 2012

The ties that bind

So it's been a few months since I worked on my Pennock lineage. Ok, it's been since late November of last year.

I got caught up in my mom's side and then the husband's lineage, that I did absolutely nothing with my own lineage.

Then someone who is related to who appears to be a granduncle I never met, by marriage, sent me a message and I'll be honest, I found it easier to talk to someone NOT intimately connected to the Pennocks about the Pennocks. No I still have not responded to the last email I got right before Thanksgiving of 2011, though I did send them a Christmas card and received no response in exchange. So, there's that.

Which prompted me to look at that part of my family again, to which I found, dozens of little green leaves waving at me (this is Ancestry.com after all), leading to hundreds of new things the spiders that crawl the census reports, etc for Ancestry.com had found.

I connected with someone else who works at a cemetery back home where apparently, my great grandparents and a few great granduncles/aunts, etc are buried. Which in turn lead me to look through the hints on my great grandmother's line- Fannie Mae Pennock nee Carnell.

The Carnells came to America fairly late, my 3rd Great grandfather Carnell lived and died in England, it was his son, William, that came to America and his daughter Fannie that married my great grandfather Pennock.

But back to Edward, my 3rd great grandfather on the Carnell line.

In 1841, he's listed as an Attorney and Solicitor in Tonbridge, Kent, England, as per the 1841 England Census. He married Sarah Kipping in 1846. They had 3 children by the 1851 census and he's listed as a Solicitor still.

1861, they have 9 children, 8 that are still living as far as I could tell, the youngest was 6 months. (they had 10 total, 9 lived)

Here's where it starts to get odd- in the 1861 England Census, Edward and 5 of his and Sarah's children, aged 16 to 5years, are listed as being in Hastings, St Mary in the castle, England.

Sarah, along with the youngest 6 month old, was listed as being in Hadlow, District 13, as a 'visitor' at what appears to be her parents' house.

Hastings and Hadlow are, in modern times, 34.9 miles apart. St Mary in the castle is a Ionic/Georgian Church/Parish in Hastings.

Why was Edward and 5 children in a parish church while his wife and youngest daughter were 35 miles away?

But wait! It gets better!

In 1863, at the age of 48, Edward- who is an Attorney, remember, was suddenly in Sussex, England.

Why? Because he was charged with rape.

According to the England & Wales, Criminal Register 1791-1892, on 23 March 1863, he was brought before a magistrate on charges of rape. If I'm reading the records correctly, he was released and acquitted of the charges.

It does not say who brought the charges or why. It's also confusing, because though it says 'Not Guilty', it also has a check mark in the 'Convicted and Sentenced' column, under 'Whipped, Fined or Discharged under sureties'.

So if he was found not guilty of the charges, why was he still fined or whipped or released (discharged) on sureties? And who brought the charges and why?

I haven't done much more digging on this matter yet, I took a break last night. But well, like Mark tells me, once I find something that makes me question it, I don't stop looking and digging until I know everything about it. I don't think this will be any different.

As an aside- Edward and Sarah apparently only had one more child after the 1863 trial, a daughter in 1864.

1871 England census, Edward is back in Tonbridge, with 2 of his sons, Frederick(aged 20) and Charles (aged13). He dies 3 years later, in 1874, at the age of 59. Where is Sarah and the rest of the family? Well, Sarah died in 1868. The rest of the older kids were likely either in America (William, my 2nd great grandfather), started their own families in the instances of the older girls, or off in apprenticeships in the case of the older boys- if that's where they in fact were.

But that leaves the 2 younger girls, Sarah and Katie, and the youngest son, 'Auther'(I believe it's meant to be 'Arthur', but census records being what they are from that day and age, transcription errors do happen). Where were they? With their older siblings, in their homes? With aunts or uncles?

Who knows. That's another bit of information I need to figure out as well.

From what I've been able to tell, only William, my 2nd great grandfather, came over to America. The rest of his siblings, lived and died in Kent, England.

Feb. 6th, 2012

Same ol', same ol'

Went back to the new computer because after dealing with the old for 2 days, I realised that I really, really hated that computer.

Mark and I had discussions last Monday, after I talked to my mom via email and he (finally) talked to his mom via the phone. Figured out how I could edit photos, so that's all well and good. Figured out where the new computer was storing my photos when I uploaded them, so that's fixed.

However, riddle me this- we have the exact same computers. His has more stuff on it now than mine does. So how come *I* am the one having issues still? Just yesterday in fact, I started up my computer and it proceeded to tell me there was an issue with the Direct X drivers. Funny, but they're updated, so um, ok?

Mark says, 'Technology hates you'.

*sigh*

I keep getting messages from people on Ancestry.com, questioning where I got some of the info on my mom's side. Umm, from my grandmother directly, as the people in question are HER grandparents? Yeah. It's gotten annoying. If you don't believe what I have, do your own research then. Find out for yourself.

Found mildew in the bedroom closet again. Worse this time, as it spread to our jackets, my cedar chest and a few other things, instead of just being on the wall. To top it off, there was mildew in the corner at the opposite end of the wall, near the bed. So Sat we spent much of the day, pulling stuff out of the closet, checking it over, pulling the dresser away from the wall, bleaching the wall, etc.

Our jackets- leather at that, which we haven't worn in at least a decade, had to be thrown out. A fabric cooler had to be tossed. A few baseball hats had to be tossed. A duffel bag, Mark's backpack, a seabag, will have have to be washed. The cedar chest had to be thoroughly cleaned.

The landlord is coming by today to open up the closet wall to see if he can figure out why there's suddenly mildew in that closet after nearly 11 years of us being here. He wondered if it was the fish tank in that room. Umm, no. That tank has been there 6 years now and we've never had any issues with it. It's not leaking, and the mildew is forming on the OUTSIDE wall, not the inside.

So tired of this crap, quite honestly.

Found out the SiL was upset at the dates we picked to go to Michigan with Mark's parents. She was upset because apparently she wanted to go, and since it's M's second week at a new school, they can't- which is completely understandable, honestly. I found this out via Mark, who found it out via his mom. The dates were picked because those were the best dates for his dad. But I do wish she'd talked to ME about it, instead of calling her mom, all upset. I just can't win.

Jul. 7th, 2011

I knew t was a possibility...

But it still comes as a bit of a surprise when you do find the information.

So I'm working on my family genealogy- still, it's an ongoing thing, as I'm doing my family tree, both the birth side and the adopted side of my dad's family, as well as my maternal side, my stepmom's family- which has a few roadblocks right now, and the husband's family- both sides. So that's essentially 8 family trees all combined into one that I'm working on. 9 if I end up doing my Sister in law's husband's line as well (haven't decided yet).

When I get stuck on one line, I go to another for awhile.

Right now, I'm working on my maternal grandmother's line - dad's birth mom- and am back to my 5th Great Grandfather through her paternal line.

Nothing like finding an 1810 US Census that says he owned 6 slaves at the time.

It was rather sobering, knowing I have ancestors who owned people. I had hopes that since I'd not found any records of the sort through my other lines, that maybe, just maybe, I'd not have any ancestors who were slave owners.

Now, I want to to know who they were. What were their names? Did they have families themselves? If so, what happened to them? Where are their ancestors now? And many, many other questions.

I know there's the possibility that many of my questions will never be answered. But it's worth looking into, it's worth finding out what happened to them and their ancestors.

May. 31st, 2011

The haul...

mood: content

So, I went to Michigan last week. Well, actually on the 19th, and came back on the 29th. Between hanging out with the family, watching my youngest Michigan niece work with her new horse, visiting a few cemeteries, digging up some Irises at Grand-Aunt Rosie's, mom and I went through family photos and documents. We also visited the bead store in Marshall and the yarn shop in Battle Creek. And dealt with RAIN, yet more RAIN and still more RAIN. I think it followed us.}:/

This was the haul from the yarn shop (minus the wool/silk blend yarn skein I bought for mom}:P)-

Yummy yarns, some nubby, but all soft, mostly sock weight or lace weight.}:P Perfect for kumihimo, which is what I bought them for.

THIS was the haul pertaining to my genealogy/family tree stuff. LOTS of documents, a package of letters *I* wrote to my parents from boot camp, etc, while in the Marines, 4 photo albums, dozens of photos, you name it. Combined with the Cemetery plots and headstones photos I took and already uploaded to my computer, there's at least a weeks worth of scanning to do, then another week's worth of editing and figuring out where to put the photos and documents in my family tree. Heh. It's all very, very interesting and I'm learning a lot about my family that I didn't know.

We also went by Horrock's again this trip. The haul from there included 1oz of dried Morel mushrooms- which reminds me that I should have taken a photo of the fresh one I found in the backyard, it was at least 5-6" in length, but it'd been harvested and gnawed on by a wild animal, so we couldn't keep it.}:/- 13 packages of Michigan cheeses- cranberry cheddar, derby sage, maple syrup cheddar times 2, habanero jack, hot pepper cheddar, apple cinnamon cheddar, horseradish cheddar, cheddar cheese curds times 2, horseradish cheddar cheese curds, amish butter cheese, and a square of asiago, medium brown wax. And 4 containers of Dark Chocolate Seafoam that's now stashed in the freezer.}:P

I have a large grocery bag FULL of Irises, snow drop bulbs, a few daffodil bulbs, tulips, some Michigan wildflowers, you name it, from Grand-Aunt Rosie's too, that I need to get planted this week. One Iris even bloomed the day after we got home.

Couple of the Irises I got. The one on the right bloomed here. The crappy photo is the ones that were blooming in Michigan, and I have that particular clump itself now.}:P Here's hoping I can keep them alive! Especially since Grand-Aunt Rosie is 'downsizing' her gardens and I may not be able to get these gorgeous flowers again. Besides I needed *something* to fill the new raised bed I built}:P

So I'm going to be busy for awhile, methinks. Oh! And mom gave me her antique printer's drawer too, the one she used to display her thimble collection in. Now I need to figure out where to hang it...

Apr. 23rd, 2011

Notes from family tree research

Someone I share an ancestor with contacted me on Ancestry.com. Well, I knew a bunch of stuff they'd mentioned, and was able to give them info on other people.

They mentioned something about the Seymour line and not sure they wanted to be related to them. That struck me as odd, and I immediately went looking.

Found where there's a Seymour in my lineage and started tracking them out. Seems people think this line of the Seymour family is related to Jane Seymour who married Henry VIII.

Well, as often happens in history when you can't figure something out, or someone says something, people tend to believe it. It seems back in the late 1800s, someone told a Seymour that a Bible, that supposedly contained handwritten notes about being related to Jane Seymour of Henry VIII fame, was authentic, but no one was allowed to examine it closely until the mid 1900s, whereupon it was found to be a forgery.

Sadly, this 'myth' has been perpetuated through history by many different historians attempting to follow the line back from Richard Seymour(1604-1655), one of the First Colonists of America. So there's quite a bit of books and things all claiming this.

In my research, I've yet to find ANY mention of a Jane Seymour in the line that I'm descended from, around the time of Henry VIII. So this myth is simply not true.

Also, through this line, family scandal* at that time would have prevented such a lofty marriage. (Also- there does not appear to be a Jane Seymour in this line, at the time of Henry VIII.)

This line may be descended from the Seymours (St Maurs) of Penhow Castle, but again, it is alleged.

*John Seymour (1746-1536)is alleged to have an affair with his daughter-in-law, Catherine Filliol, married in 1527 to Edward Seymour(1500-1552) at the time.

As a result, the three children from that marriage- John(1527-1552), Mary or Margaret (1527/8-1570) and Edward (1529-1593) were declared 'bastards' as their paternal parentage was in question. The marriage was annulled, about 1533/4.

Edward then remarried to Anne Stanhope in 1534 and it is from them that this line allegedly continues. The Seymour I appear to be descended from, on my maternal line, is 7 generations back, and female.

I say alleged because until I have actual records and evidence proving the factuality of the lineage, it's all an unknown, hypothesis. Such is a lot of genealogical research, until it's irrefutably proven.

Nonetheless, it's very interesting and makes for good reading. Especially if you like history like me. Although, I'm still not sure why they don't think they'd want to be related to them, unless they mean the scandal. Hmm. (Which seems to be par for the course as far as screwy stuff in my maternal line).